☰ Cards, readings & spreads
Tarot spreads
A spread is a set of positions, each of which gives a card a job. The layout matters less than the discipline: decide what each position asks before you deal, and the reading stays honest.
Love and relationships
Spreads for a connection between two people, and for the one you have with yourself. A card describes the dynamic between you; it cannot report what someone else feels.
Questions and decisions
For a question with a choice in it: a quick yes or no, a job, or two paths side by side. The cards lay out pulls and costs; the decision stays yours.
Time and season
Spreads tied to the calendar: the week, the moon cycle, a birthday, Halloween and the turn of the year. Each works best laid at the moment it is named for.
Year Ahead Spread
Birthday Spread
Weekly Spread
New Moon Spread
Full Moon Spread
Halloween Spread
General spreads
Layouts that take any question, from a single card to the ten-card Celtic Cross. Start small: more positions only help when the question has more parts.
One Card Draw
Three Card Spread
Five Card Spread
Horseshoe Spread
Celtic Cross
Which spread for which question
Closed question with a yes or no answer — one card. A decision with a before and after — three cards. A situation with many people and pressures in it — the Celtic Cross. Using a ten-card spread on a simple question produces ten cards of noise.
Start now
The one-card draw is built into the site — ask a question and pull.
Questions about spreads
How many cards are in a tarot deck?
Seventy-eight: 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana, split into four suits of 14 cards (Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles). Every spread here deals from the full deck, and the sample deal turns some cards reversed, as a real shuffle does.
Which tarot spread is best for beginners?
The one card draw, then the three card spread. Both are small enough to read as one picture, and they teach the habit that matters most: deciding what each position asks before you turn a card. The five card spread is the natural next step.
How many cards should a spread have?
As many as the question has parts. A closed question needs one card; a situation with a before and after needs three; a relationship with two people and the bond between them needs more. Extra positions on a simple question add noise, not depth.
Can you make your own tarot spread?
Yes. Write the positions down first, one question per card, and decide the order you will lay them in. Most spreads on this page were built that way: the shape on the table follows the questions, not the other way around.
